InsightDeutschland Town Halls

InsightDeutschland Company Town Halls

The ACG has been awarded a grant by the German Federal Foreign Office to implement InsightDeutschland Town Halls in nine communities across the United States. The goal of these town halls is to engage new audiences in a conversation and a genuine exchange of ideas about the transatlantic relationship, highlighting the deep political, economic, and social ties and common challenges that impact the citizens of both countries globally and locally.

The InsightDeutschland Town Halls will follow two distinct formats and address the following themes:

German-American economic relations – challenges and opportunities,

Common transatlantic foreign policy agenda,

German-American defense and security cooperation,

Energy and environmental policy,

German domestic issues and politics, and

Digitalization and workforce preparedness.

One program format will consist of InsightDeutschland Company Town Halls, three sets of five-day “listening tours” at German and American companies with significant transatlantic business. The town halls will be held in Chicago and Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Spartanburg, and Chattanooga and Tuscaloosa – all cities and regions with a significant concentration of companies doing business with Germany in a wide range of industry sectors.

The second program format will be InsightDeutschland Weekend Town Halls in Boise, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix targeting younger and mid-career professionals, as well as undergraduate and graduate students at college campuses in the communities. These town halls will consist of 6-8 interactive sessions — storytelling (personal narratives), TEDx-like presentations, panel discussions, debates, talk show-style interviews, workshops exploring concrete ideas on how the communities can increase engagement with Germany in the future, and cultural activities – over one and half days.

The InsightDeutschland Town Halls will begin in February 2019 and continue until October 2019.